Beyond Coffee by Khadir Babu

Picked this book at Hyderabad book festival. Picked it,only because its written by Khadir Babu, the author of Polerammaband kathalu and Dargamitta kathalu.

Its a collection of short stories. Except for one story, most of them are based on upper middle class or upper class where the characters either tend to jump into an illicit relationship or make their lives miserable out of boredom. I might be undermining the theme in a line, but the old saying " An idle mans mind is devils workshop" is true, and author tried to elaborate it with stories, only, its not a mans mind, its women's mind he talked about.

I have never finished a collection of short stories which are not related with each other, like , Malgudi Days ( Which reminds me that i am yet to finish that book ), but, the style of author is too gripping to loosen the grip on the book and not to turn pages.

Overall, a good read, however i strongly feel, its overrated, Rs 135 for few stories which can be finished in couple of hours is not acceptable.

Expanding RTI to media!

There was much argument on bringing political parties under RTI. I agree to that, but sadly none of political parties which preach transparency did not.

All the present media, both paper and electronic, propagate a particular ideology to the people. Of late, they have started cooking stories to make a news and entertain us. According to me, this is more dangerous than corrupt political parties.

Once, we start to build opinions based on unverifiable stories, that's the end of reason. If the reason is gone for a toss, then the assumption that people are sensible individuals capable of apply reason to make decision to some extent,  on which concept of democracy is built,  becomes false.

A law is important as media stopped educating people but instead started entertaining them like cinemas. The motto is to give people what they want to know, not what they have to know.

Attacks on Reliance stores which followed after few popular Telugu news channels stated a provocative discussion that Reliance industries made sure that Late CM YSR get killed pertaining to krishna-godavari basin. The source being a German website. Before, rest of the media started enlightenment that the source is not reliable, the damage was done.

If not RTI, at least we need an ombudsmen which force media to share the source of the news.

i lead india campaign

The campaign to spread understanding on Right to Information act, in collaboration with Times of India.

The organizer was Mr. Ali, a software employee at Unisys.

 I already knew how to apply RTI and have applied few times before. My RTI endeavours are mostly because of enthusiasm. I have no idea on getting information for change in the system.

But, the organizer , with his success stories, and balanced opinions showed me a path and gave me whats needed to be change the system. I.e stop complaining with friends and start complaining with the authorities. Its that simple.

I am one of those citizens who talk in length on how badly govt is working, and how it worsened the situation. Deep down, i knew, there something i should be doing for that, and i dont know what to do, so , like many, there is nothing to do.

More than the lecture on RTI, its the shared success stories between organizers and participants, gave me hope that, sooner or later, India shall raise.

The workshop made me realize that, to change the system, we don't have to dig up a 2G like scam. A simple act of getting the road you use repaired will inspire others to do the same. Until then, i dont even know that GHMC runs a portal to receive complaints from the citizens. Its the information like these, we do not know which makes ignorant to the solutions of everyday problems.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Revenge story of a captain on a whale. Thats the story in nutshell.

The book is considered as American classic, and a website mentioned that , this book along with " Atlas shrugged " was left unfinished by many readers. If I had not known that, probably I would have done the same thing.

Instead of calling it a novel, I would like to call it " A study on whales and whaling ships ". The author wrote too much on taxonomy and anatomy of whales, about the interactions between the ships , and how the room mate of narrator baths and many more trivial topics. The uncontrollable wish of the author to make a bulky book , made reading an ordeal.

It took me almost six months to finish it. Many times I thought of abandoning it, but like captain Ahab who resolved to kill the rogue whale of all the seas, I have resolved to finish the novel. The reader must have the same qualities of the captain Ahab to accomplish the task. Patience, determination, ability to boost self and a broken leg, so that you can't run away.

Ishmael, narrator of the novel, knows too much, thinks too much, observes too much and has the urge to verbalize every thought. After reading a hundred pages I wanted to put a plaster on his mouth. Apart from nonsense on details, it's the Victorian English used by characters which pushed the annoyance to the next level.

Anyway, it's one book, I am proud of finishing. Like, Zen and art of motor cycle maintenance, it deserves another reading, may be after few years!

The Great Gatsby

The story of an eternal lover trying to get his love back , though she is married to someone else.

I have not read the original work, just saw the movie. I think, what the movie say is, that, guys are good at giving commitment and girls are not. The hero loves her so much that, he is ready to take the death of woman who was killed in a car accident by the girl he loves on his head. And the girl , who jumps into the love at first kiss with hero, then , love at first gift with somebody in the absence of hero and marries the second guy , who is not loyal to her. Then our hero, The Great Gatsby, tries to win her heart by throwing parties for her and throwing expensive clothes at her. She comes close to him, and her husband came to know whats going on.

When the husband takes off the cover which is hiding the whole thing, Gatsby says the girl never loved him. The girl confirms the same in low voice, but when husband asks her again after reminding her a romantic moment, she changed tune to , i loved him in past but now loves Gatsby.  The husband successfully annoys Gatsby regarding his low-born, when Gatsby loses his temper and tries to hit her husband, the girl starts crying and could not come close to Gatsby. On the way to home, the girl hits the mistress of her husband with a car. Husband of the girl,  convinces the husband of that mistress-girl, that its Gatsby with whom she is having an illegitimate relationship.

In a trial to protect the girl, Gatsby got ready to take the blame of death on him. The girl and her husband leaves the home for good. And our poor Gatsby waits for her call which confirms the elope. While he was waiting for the call, the husband of the mistress-girl, shots him in the heart.

The acting-crew performed so well that, i hated the characters. The author might have succeeded in what he wants to inspire in people. Have to read the original work, for a better judgment.

Seven Samurai

An old Black & White Japanese movie. Its the movie from which sholey is inspired. Of course, there are major differences.

Seven Samurai, maintained a simple story line than sholey. In sholey, villain character is elevated more than protagonists.

Village is attacked by group of bandits after harvesting. On the advise of village old man, a group of villagers set out to city in search of Samurais who would risk their lives to save the village. These are poor farmers, so there is no reward for the samurais , except rice.

To their luck, seven samurais agree for the deal. They come to the village, prepare battle plan, strengthens the defence of the village, train villagers for battle, won the battle. A simple story, but captivating photography and screenplay. Though , its three and half hours long movie, i never felt boredom. A must watch for drama genre lovers. 

Adventures of Chinnari

I went to this only because my friend is part of crew . Director thought its for children, but i refuse to agree so.

The story is simple. There was a demon, which steals valuable things. One day it steals the dress of chinnari , in which her wants to see her. So, chinnari set out to seek the dress. Two villages went along with her. The path to reach daemon is guarded by two lesser daemons , Fast-food-daemon and Television-daemon. She passes through them, kill the antagonist and takes her dress. 

Though its aimed at kids. I highly doubt if this generation kids like it or not. In the era of 3D graphics, which kid wants to see a drama where cloth and bamboo sticks are used create the background, which i felt , extraordinary. The Hut in which chinnari lives, the boxing ring, a boat in ocean , a mountain, a rope bridge  etc etc are set using clothes. And the background music along with songs are good. 

The play is by Theater-outreach , Hyderabad central university.  They are organizing the play all over Andhra Pradesh , on request. 

The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

I expected something else, but the author gave me better.

By the title , I expected a story line similar to Anil Kapoor's " Black & white ", where an Islamic fundamentalist becomes reluctant to blow the bomb at Redfort in the last moment.

The story of the book is based on a Pakistani , who went to America for studies. After he got selected in a reputed financial firm and falling in love with an American, attacks on world trade center happen. Major part of the novel deals with how he was affected by those attacks.

More than the story, it's the narration style which kept me going. The author had made the reader, me , a character in the book.

Not a great book, but , not a bad choice, for someone who wish to try new.

Freakonomics

One of the famous books on popular economics.

Be warned, though the book claims to be a book on economics,  its in fact a book on sociology. The reader hardly learn anything about economics from this.

The author talked about the how conventional wisdom might not true all the time. To support his point, author had given many examples. These examples, give us a different view on society in general.

Instead of discussing chapters like GDP, GNP , growth rate etc etc  author chose to discuss much on criminology and popular misconceptions. However, some of the arguments against misconceptions are hard to agree, or hard to check the authenticity. For example, in an argument against the popular belief that watching TV damage brains of kids, author says that, in Finland, where children are allowed to go to so from the age of seven, sit at home, and learn to read by watching American channels with finnish subtitles. Another chapter is dedicated to money spent by contestants in American elections and their percentage of victory. I find that chapter, really ridiculous.

Too many statistics in some chapters, and while breaking generalizations, author made few generalizations. I disagree with the misconceptions author has mentioned, but can't really accept the examples he provided.

If you really want to learn something on economics or get an insight into world trade or something like that, dont buy this one, instead go for "Underground economist" .

Tale of haruk - Korean play

The theater enthusiast woke up in the evening and I went to watch "Tale of Haruk" at Ravindra Bharati. On the ticket it was printed that it's a korean play with subtitles. Too late, I already paid the money, so decided to give it a shot.

They have installed two large Televisions on both side of the stage to display subtitles. Auditorium is not completely filled. And the play started at the mentioned time. 

The story is a silly one. There is not much scope for the action for actors. There were no lengthy dialogues. The play offers little insight of Korea. However, i consider the play is great, not because of the story and all but based on how it is played.

The tallest guy among the actors, started performing magic a show. Rest of them joined him, thumping rudimentary musical instruments like water cans, water bottles, copper plates etc etc. The magician creates music out of just sounds. This act, worked as ice breaker. This made us get ready to accept uncommon things in the play so that we wont be shocked. And these are same instruments which offered background music through out the play. 

Its the story of an old and sad couple who pass time nagging each other. They pray the "Tree of spirit" for baby. The tree gives them an egg, and told them not to feed the baby anything other than dew. When the egg is hatched, the baby came out and said "Haruk", so they named him Haruk, little they know that its the only word or sound the baby is capable of pronouncing. While trying to teach the baby other words, the couple started learning Haruk-language. 

One day, tired of eating dew everyday , Haruk demands rice. After much thinking, the couple feeds him rice. That night, Haruk dreamt of Big things, and when he woke up , he become big and hungry. The more he ate, the more he gets bigger and the more hungry he became.  He ate the whole world, sun , moon and the old couple too. Then he gets lonely and starts crying. The tears of him become the rivers and his body become land and mountains. However, universe continue to cherish in his tummy including the old couple who continue to bicker.

More than story or acting skills of the artists, everybody was amazed by the way it is played.  The manifestation of Haruk growing beyond limits, the way they used puppets to represent the old couple in the climax to make us understand that how big the Haruk become, the use of lights are worth watching.

pheku.in

Two days ago, i went to La Makaan, and found myself in www.pheku.in launching function.

In Twitter, faku is the word used for Narendra Modi and Pappu is for Rahul Gandhi. The owners of the website say they are not just against Modi, but every politician who gives false data to prove his administrative talent. According to them, Modi-sycophants love him for the so called development in Gujarat. And by, " enlightening " them with facts, Modi-sycophancy can be reduced.

I think, the problem is deeper than that. According to my observation, development of Gujarat is socially acceptable reason to announce their love for Modi, the real reason is Godhra riots. Many who argued with me, supported Modi, for letting the Muslims die. The argument goes something like this " What? You dont like Modi, for letting the Muslims die in the massacre. What do you call the train accident which initiated Godhra riots. They killed us first , and we killed them in revenge. Its fair. This is land of Hindus bro "

Of course i have to repeat the old dialog " Revenge is not justice" , and they brindise me as a congress supporter. So , the real problem is  the psychological fight of "They Vs We". 

Book Without A Title.

Till few months back, i wanted to avoid death. I knew its not possible, i would like to be the Dorian Gray. I dont want to age, i dont want to die. Not that, i would like to embrace it now, but recently i developed different view on it.

Death. Its like the last fullstop of an interesting book. If you ever read a book, which you are so much enjoying it, and got annoyed because the book has an ending after few pages. The reading speed goes slow, so that you can enjoy it for some more time. For me, it usually happens with RK Narayan books. We might not check the number of pages in that book, but we knew that , its going to end.

Now, i perceive life like that. Its a book. I dont know , how many pages are in it. But, i am sure, its going to end at some point. I dont know when its going to end either. However, its hard to accept the truth that, it will end , it does not matter, if i accept it or not, its going to end. I like it or not, i have to read it.  While reading novels, we drop the novels, which are boring or depressing. With , book of life, i dont have that choice. I HAVE to read it.

The religionists believe that, Brahma or some guy who belongs to their religion wrote it and they have to read it. As a nihilist, i believe , i am the author of it. So, in a nutshell, i am writing a book, but i dont know when it will end. I have few choices to make. First, i write nothing, except mundane activities. In that case, when i reach the end, when i skim through the pages, i cant find anything worth reading. Lets say i am in death-bed with no physical activity what so ever. Would not i regret that i have no memories written which are worth reading, feel nostalgic , feel proud, feel ashamed, to feel anything at all. If the authour cant enjoy his/her own work , then its worst work possible in the world, is not it?

Second, believe that God will write it. No , i cant accept that. Third , let others write it. Hell NO.

Many i know, prepare cover page of the book first , then start writing it. The cover-page requires, a title, a photo and name of the author. The famous titles will be something like "Story of a successful man", "My love story" , "Me and my family" , "How soap operas changed me", "How i kicked asses of others", " The greatest man ever born" , " Me and Religion " etc etc . Once the title is fixed, then photo. A picture of him, in youth, with his life partner , while everybody is watching them, is a common picture. Or a photo of him , in youth (obviously! ) having good time with friends. Usually, the title will be decided by society and photo will resemble the trend in the movies.

Now, as they got  title and photo ready, many want to write the content in accordance with the cover page.  However, these people are better than the ones , who ask others to write a title and think of a photo. Their books will be written by others not them. Amazingly, at no point, they think that, their book is too boring. For the readers, they might be the worst authors, but they are in peace, believing destiny and all those crap.

Coming to me, i have decided on the photo. It will be me my pic on the death bed , laughing. Not that society accepted laugh, my special laugh. And the title? It would be "My life" like Bill Clinton autobiography or none. Just blank.

Previously , i wrote blog posts on similar topic. Now, i feel they don't have much depth. They are

After a quarter  and అవును , నేను పాత విల్లన్ లాంటి వాడినే !!  . Only change, now and then is , i am beginning to accept death.

The dark room by R.K.Narayan

I think its one of few books RK Narayan wrote, which go on a serious note.

The story of a neglected wife, who usually sulks , but become normal after spending few days in the dark room of the home. After few pages of story, she realizes that her husband is moving closely with another lady. This time, she leaves the house, goes to another part of the town and joins as a sweeper in a temple.

The feminists might expect the story to end there, or might expect her husband to realize her value and ask for her forgiveness. However, author lead the story in more realistic way.

Small book, but made me think over it for a long time.

The question of criminal- legislators !

The relationship between politicians and crime is legendary, so is, the idea to ban criminals to enter politics. However the solution is not suitable in Indian context with our sluggish judiciary system. Supreme Court has been trying to put an end to this, but without success.

Economists like S.A. Aiyar and Bimal Jalan are arguing for a different approach. I.e to speed up the court cases of the legislators with criminal cases. Their argument is that, with a system like that, the criminals abstain from entering foray fearing that their case will come to an end soon the verdict might come against them. I liked this solution very much. But there is a small problem with it.

What if, the accused is proved guilty? We have to remove him/her from legislation. Then what? Elections have to be conducted in that constituency again. And what if the next candidate also proven guilty?

Extending that idea, why cant we make the time between nominations to elections six months or one year, and ask the courts to speed up the process of the cases on the contestants. This way, people don't have to vote multiple times and legislature will be criminal free. 

Philosophical dilemma with technical analysis.

Regarding stock trading, there are broadly two methods investors follow. Fundamental analysis and technical analysis.

It is considered that fundamental analysis is for long term investment, where the investor would check the balance sheet of the company to invest in it or not. On the other hand, techincal analysis does not bother itself with balance sheets or ledgers , but on charts which depict the history of the stock so far.The trader analyze the stock history and decide when to buy it and when to sell it. The philosophy behind this technical analysis is that there will be pattern for every stock.

Now my philosophical problem, is it right to follow technical analysis or not.  How can we be sure that there is a pattern and the stock follows the pattern in the future too.

Long back i denied the idea of "Circle of life", "History repeats itself" , " horoscopes can tell everything" etc etc. There is a reason for me to deny so. According to mathematics, if we toss a coin fifty times in a row, and if we  toss it again, the probability of head and tails will still be fifty-fifty. It implies that, the result of game cant be predicted based on the history. My life is an example too. Since kindergarden, people consider me an above average student. I have never failed
in school or in inter. But that didn't stop me to fail in the B.Tech first year From first semester of engineering to the last but one semester, i failed a few subjects in every semester. But that history, could not stop me to clear the last semester exams in one go , achieving the degree in four years.

If we have to judge a person , or guess the result of an outcome, based on past, then there wont be any "giving second chances". It closes our minds and make us stupids. Lets take the example of Indian cricket team. It got defeated many times in a row, but won again. Australia won many matches, in row, but some point it failed. The same goes with horoscopes, astrology. If i had to believe in technical analysis to make a quick buck, i have to believe in "Circle of life" things to avoid being an hypocrite.

Later, i read an article, which eliminated that dilemma. The author explained the essence of technical analysis i.e those charts does not just show the price of the stock each day, they actually show the psychology of other investors regarding that stock. The upper limit and lower limit does not just show the performance of the company but the belief of the investors in that stock. Now that made sense. Its human psychology. We, people, as a whole, are not better than sheep. Something in our mind tells us to follow other than making a new path, so , we follow what others are following. And as humans we have mental inertia, i.e its hard to change our belief system, unless some forces us to believe otherwise. If a stock is going up, that means, the leaders, in this case, the fundamental analysis people, start investing in it, and others start buying it because the stock is going up. When the fundamental analysis people start selling the stock, because the stock value went beyond the book-value, people follow them and sell it like its end of the world, so the stock value goes down, till again a fundamental analyst finds it good to buy. Its a pattern, not of stock, but psychology of people.

However, that lead to another problem. In technical analysis i am making decisions based on opinion of other investors but not on the performance of the company. Its like judging somebody based on opinion of others, without having first hand experience, making me one of the sheep, who buys and sells based on decision of others. I guess, thats the easy way to live in this world, without wasting much energy on thinking and analysing. 

1984 by George Orwell

Its one of the hardest book to read and accept what author wanted to convey. Of course, in the end i have to accept with author in every aspect. This book definitely comes to mind when one have to prioritize between society and individual.

The novel, which gave birth to many popular words like "Big Brother", "Newspeak", "Room 101" etc etc , deals with the era where socialism is fully established i.e production and distribution of wealth in the hands of Govt. A totalitarianism covered with mass-attracting morals. The novel depicts the encounter of a man who want to think and feel, with the govt which wants to eliminate the freedom of though to continue the regime for ever.

There are many concepts the book has touched in a beautiful way, like, proof of love, freedom, thoughts, importance having vocabulary, power, manipulation, torture , propaganda  etc etc.

A must read, if you are struggling to understand the importance of individual.

RTI regarding nicotine and tar content on cigarettes

Tobacco prohibition act says that the tobacco manufacturing companies have to provide the nicotine and Tar content along with the warning sign on the products. All most  all cigarette companies hide that information. When I applied RTI , this is the response I have received.

SNS journalism !

Social networking is the revolution which is slowly removing the need of print/electronic media. I don't have to read an interview in a newspaper to know the opinion of the celebrity I like.

Not only celebrities, but also politicians. But only few politicians are using it.  I appreciate the way government departments are using social networking sites. For example Hyderabad Traffic police page on Facebook. They are updating any route-changes, along with realtime traffic updates.

Prime minister office has a Twitter account through which I know what prime minister is up to. The meteorological department of India Facebook page updates me on weather.

On top of them, there are few individuals who reach out public through social media. For example Omar Abdullah, CM of Jammu & Kashmir. His tweets on his duties as a CM are interesting. Shashi Tharoor, Ajay Maken , Narendra Modi are few politicians who are using Twitter.

Social networking sites are providing a ground , where " Out of context" remarks, misinterpretation and opinions of journalists are absent. This method reduced the work of journalists too. Now they don't have to run to a celebrity/politician. Just follow them on Twitter and show the tweet on their channel. Already our national media is following that technique.

The day I stopped drinking milk by sudha Murty

A collection of short stories. If you are kind of a person who tries very hard to finish what was started, then pick it up.

If you are more than 15 years old, and if you had read fables when you were a kid, then either you might get nostalgia or the page number where you stopped reading will indicate the level of patience you have.This book will examine how well you can motivate yourself.

The book contains collection of incidents. In every incident, first person is Sudha Murty. In more than half of the stories, the stories end with showing how wise and compassionate she is. She maintained the same style of story telling for every story. All most all stories starts with description of a person she knows. Then how she helped that person or lectured that person. In the end there will be a moral.

Except for one story " Do you remember?" Where some other person lectures her on how small things are important in life more than awards. I patiently read all stories, except the last one. Where she wrote her life lessons ,point by point . I could not read that one, I can't read a fable with moral in the end anymore. I swallowed my ego, accepted that I am not that patient as I would like to think of myself and closed the book.

And this will be the day, I stopped reading Sudha Murty books.

The man who talk too much !!

I was not referring to the guys to who become over-talkative in presence of girls, or vice versa .  I was referring people with obsessive talking disorder. People who cant stop talking. I am not sure if its a biological problem or psychological disorder or just lack of social skills.

These people have to talk all the time. Because, its their jaws which pump the blood to other parts of the body. If they stop talking, they die. I don't have a problem, if they choose to chew a gum, but somehow , they prefer to talk, they have to use tongue. May be its because their jaws get sweat and the tongue has to fan them.

Based on what they talk , i categorize them into three sections.

Category 1 :

These people think they have social skills. If you start a topic, which they don't know, they talk nonsense on it with confidence. You might misunderstand that they are trying for "I-Know-it-all" image. Thats not true, its just that , saying "I don't know about that " would not give them chance to speak. So , they have to made up stories or something about the topic you started, just to talk. That stresses their mind a lot, and the side affect is, they tend to forget what they chattered. If they picked the topic of conversation, then you are dead.

Category 2:

These people did not cultivate the habit of listening. No listening means no accumulation of new knowledge. They have very little to speak, and that "little", usually, about themselves. So, they talk a lot about their families, about their childhood, their school teacher, their friends, incidents which happened in the past .... repeatedly, over and over again, each time with same energy levels, to new listeners or to the old ones.

 After sometime, you knew how the story going to end, because you heard it several times before, but still , you will be forced to listen to that. These people are so enthusiastic in talking , that they dont even bother if you are listening or not. And that enthusiasm makes them deaf, once they start talking.  I prefer listening to their nonsense over phone so that i can finish chores , all i have to say "ok", "ooh", "really?" "is it?" "Then?" etc etc. Usually i stick to "OK", of course i have to make those sounds  to satisfy myself that i am in a conversation, not in a public meeting.  You need not bother to say a sentence or share a similar story which happened with you. Even if you do, they dont listen. Social manners says that , if somebody is talking, listen to them. They are not aware of it, they will resume their chatter before you finish your sentence. Just remember that, they have got wax in their ears and they are reciting the chapters from their little diaris. According to my observation, these people jump to category one after few years.

Category 3:

The purest form of verbal diarrhea. Just nonsense. They are burden to society. And society sarcastically calls them "Talkative", and they take it as a compliment. These people have to verbalize every thought from their brains. Luckily, these are easy to spot, just listen 5 minutes, and you will understand that , what ever they talk , is patternless and does not make sense. These are so dumb that, they usually misunderstand whatever you say. If you find a person like that, just run for your life. Don't even try to be polite, just make an excuse so that others wont think of you rude......... and run.

Wreck-it Ralph

An animated movie which I found interesting. All the characters in the movie are characters of computer games.

The story starts with the meeting of antagonists from all computer games. Ralph, a bad guy in his game , expresses his desire to be praised, to be accepted by other characters of his game. Rest of the villains, warn him that all characters must respect the programs and do the job which they were designed to do. Sounds like the doctrine of everything-is-destined.

But Ralph wanted a gold medal which the heroes get, to get some respect from the other characters. So he leaves his game in search of one. Without villain, what any hero can do? Kids who paid money to play the game at the gamezone complain to the owner that the game is malfunctioning. Characters of the game realize that, there is a fat chance the arcade game will be thrown away if Ralph doesn't return. So the hero of the game leaves it to search him.

After messing up other games as well, everybody realize the importance of all the characters in a game. The story ends with every game working properly.

Nice story, I find it a bit boring for 5 min, but it made me sit and watch.

Nautanki Saalaa

Its one movie I watched because of the hero I.e Vicky donor fame.

The hero gave his best just like he did in Vicky donor, but the movie has too many twists, too many songs and too much emotional drama. The comedy of first half is great, but I found no humor in second half, though the background music begs me to understand that it's a comedy scene.

The story is best suited for a soap opera or a novel. The directed might have wanted to orchestra the audience between love and humor but the end result is boring.

Ship of theseus

If anybody believes that a boring film in  documentary style is an art film , so a great film, then this movie is for them.

Ship of Theseus is a philosophical question , " If all parts of a ship are replaced, then is it original ship or not . " The director tried to use that in organ donation , but , failed.

The movie depicts lifestyles of organ recovers more than anything to do with the philosophical question. I think he should have pictured the lives of receivers after transplantation was done.  The way director portrayed the kidney-business is good. That is the only part not boring in the entire movie.

Not to worry, there is comedy too. I was giggling like a school kid at a scene which shows how to put deadpan to an old lady with broken leg, including pre and post washing of it.

Where is home?

Just watched a TED video Where is home? Nice video.

The person produced some important points on "Feeling home", but drifted towards kind of spirituality later. He confined his idea of home to a  psychological thing in the era of Global-Village. But, I believe the feeling of home has a sociological factor also. In the end he says "Home is where you stand" , and my point is that a person should be allowed to stand at that point first. Its been thousand years Arabs invaded and settled down in India, and many so-called-native-descendants deny that its their homeland too. Still, people fight with each other because of the question "From where you are?"

Before we try to get the GPS location of the HOME, i think first we have to understand what home is. Is it the place where we are comfortable? then Hotels should be the answer. But no, we dont feel "home" in a hotel , no matter how many stars it has. Is it the safest place? Again, no. If safety is the criteria to call a structure, home, then prisons are the safest places, but people try to run away from them.  Is it the place we are familiar with ? Then office buildings can be called homes.

I think all those factors along with many other constitute a HOME. Its the place, where i am always welcome, a place where i can hide , where all my belongings will be present, where i feel safe, where i can enter and exit at my will, where i am sure that i dont have to fight , place where i need not be ashamed to go , where i am familiar with the surroundings (my grandparents were happy to sell their home to buy a new one, but could not leave the town) , most importantly, a place i was habituated to live.

I too agree that, home is not just a  structure. Its an idea. I could not understand, if we develop the idea from the structure we are living in, or we build the structure according to the idea, or its both?  My father, who spent his childhood in congested area, built an individual home in the outskirts leaving much space around the house for gardening. And I, want to live in an apartment at the heart of the city. And few of my friends whats to live in their parents home without any changes. May be, disliking-parents-home runs in my family!

Home is a place i am willing to feel like that, and a place where people around me encourage me to do so. How about having no such feeling at all? Then i am homeless and restless. How about developing that feeling of home for all places, then i will be a nomad , but a happy person.

Over action of politicians

In democracy we will be under the impression that politicians care what people care ,to appear that they actually care about people.

But, there are few incidents, where politicians care what they "think" people care, to become famous or for personal gains. I produce few cases, where citizens were mostly nonchalant I.e no mass movement producing new leaders, but politicians started being melodramatic.

Case 1 : FDI in retail

I see no dharna or rastaroko from kirana & general store associations. None of them threatened or for that matter opposed that policy except for opposition parties. All most all major columnists of popular news papers welcomed that move and there is not even a small incident where the newspapers printed those columns got burnt. However, political parties made fuss about it.

Case 2 : Telengana issue

The demand to have a separate Telangana state is supported by mass movement. People burnt themselves in emotion, people made most of the bandhs successful all over Telangana regarding the issue. I see no mass support like that for United Andhra movement. Its just politicians talking in front of TV cameras. If people of rest of the Andhra Pradesh are being nonchalant for the last 6 years or so, don't understand what the politicians get over excited about United Andhra movement. 

Case 3 : corruption

This is one case where people expressed anger and opposition  actually harassed the government on it.

Terminal man by Michel Crichton

Another science fiction novel by my favorite author. This time on mind control.

The book depicts the life of a man with damaged brain. Because of that he develops seizures with time to time. When a seizure attacks him, he does extremely violent things which he forgets when he got grip on himself again.

Neuroscientists insert electrodes at many points in his brain and attach them to a tiny computer. The role of the computer is to make him feel good by sending electrical signals to his brain via electrodes. This, supposed to cure his violent behavior.

However, the opposite happens. Human brain works in such a way to make us survive and feel happiness. Whenever he is about to get a seizure, the computer makes him feel good, leading to the stoppage of seizure. The brain learns this, and starts producing more seizures for the patient to feel good more. And the patient escapes from the hospital.

Rest of the book deals with the implications of such procedure , the philosophical problems associated with it, and how doctors tried to catch the man.

Why I am an atheist? By Bhagat Singh

Just 15 pages. Its a cry of a realist against blind faith.

Bhagat Singh asked the same questions every atheist would ask and produced the same arguments every atheist would produce in favor of atheism. The master stroke, is the way he used India's struggle for independence in such a philosophical thing. His question was, if God is really omnipotent as they claim, then why didn't he seed the sentiment for the independence of India in the hearts of British?

Title justification was done in each page. He tried to explain , due to realism and reasoning he became an atheist and not because of vanity.

I expected boredom when I started it, but finished in one go.

Les miserables - movie

Based on a historic novel in the backdrop of French revolution by Victor Hugo.

First of all , I could not understand why they have chosen a musical format. It was based on a lengthy novel, not a play , to cover the whole story in two and half hours. The director was obsessed with songs, even simple , unimportant conversations also replaced with songs. Except slave-song and revolution-song no is worth remembering. Of course I am no aficionado in the subject of musicals, but if this was my first musical , then definitely I would not dare to watch another musical.

I didn't like the casting either. Russell Crowe didn't fit in the character well, he lack the stern face the character demands. His expressions were worst while showing the moral dilemma before the character takes its life. Huge Jackman was perfect for the always-struggling character. However " The dictator " fame Cohen beat him in giving life to the role. It's sad that Johnny Depp was not part of such an offbeat movie.

Well, I was skimming through the  Wikipedia article on the book and realized that , as usual, the book offers more than the movie. So, added this one to my To-Read list.

రాచకొండ రాళ్ల మహిమ

ఇబ్రహింపట్నం అవతల రాచకొండ అనే ఒక ఊరుంది. అక్కడో పెద్ద కోట కూడా ఉంది, చాలా పాత కోట, చాల పెద్ద కోట, గోల్కొండ కన్నా పెద్దది. ఆ కోటలో లంకెబిందెలు ఉన్నాయని ప్రజల నమ్మకం. కోట మొత్తం బంగారు నాణేల కోసం , నిధులు కోసం తవ్విన గుర్తులు కనిపిస్తాయి. ఇప్పటికి అక్కడ తవ్వకాలు సాగుతున్నాయి.

కోటకి ఆవలి వైపు, ఎవడో నిధి కోసం తవ్వడం మొదలు పెట్టాడు, తవ్విన చోట ఒక పెద్ద శివలింగం బయటపడింది. బయటకి తీసుకు వచ్చి రోడ్ పక్కన పెట్టాడు . ఇది జరిగి అటు ఇటు గా ఒక ఇరవయి రోజులింది.

కోట చూద్దామని నిన్న బయలుదేరాం ఫ్రండ్స్ అందరం. ఆ చుట్టుపక్కల తెలిసిన ఒక ఫ్రండ్ కూడా వచ్చాడు. తిన్నగా శివలింగం దొరికిన చోటుకి తీసుకెళ్ళాడు . అక్కడో చిన్న సైజు జాతర లాంటిది నడుస్తోంది. దొరికిన శివలింగం పైన చిన్న టెంటు లాంటిది వేసారు. శివలింగం సైజు హుండీ ఒకటి ఎదురుగా పెట్టారు . టీవీ వాళ్ళు ఎవరో వచ్చి ఇంటర్వ్యూ కూడా తీస్కున్తున్నారు.

విషయం ఏమిటంటే , అక్కడ ఒక దాని మీద ఒకటిగా రాళ్ళూ పేర్చిన వారికీ మనసులో కోరికలు నెరవేరుతాయని పుకారు స్టార్ట్ అయ్యింది. మాతో వచ్చిన ఫ్రండ్ చెప్పాడు, ఆ నమ్మకం పోయినవారం వచ్చినపుడు లేదంట. సో ఫ్రెష్ నమ్మకం.

మాతో పాటు వచ్చిన ఇంకో స్నేహితుడి పెళ్లి వచ్చే సంవత్సరం అయినా కావాలని , రాళ్లు పేర్చి , దండం పెట్టి వచ్చాం . 

An Open Letter Chetan Bhagat

Dear Mr. Bhagat,

             Early in the morning , before even finishing my first cup of tea, i happened to read your Letter from an Indian Muslim. The writing style is great, but the point you tried to send across is not.

First of all, before even talking on politics, topi, muslims and Babri issue, lets talk about a simple topic of "Who needs a leader?". The deprevided or oppressed group of people needs a leader to voice out their problems. For that the group must have the same problem which they want to get rid off.

Now please explain, what is the common problem , all the muslims unitedly facing. Is it poverty, no , not all of them are poor. Is it description, no, because if it is so, none of my muslim friends would invite me to their home. So, what is that problem all Indian Muslims are facing. None, by none, i mean there no one issue, which can be attributed to all indian muslim.

The point being is , there are two types of secularisms. The western and indian. Western secularism   ask us to throw away every religion out of politics and indian secularism ask us to treat every religion equally. There lies the problem. To treat both hindus and muslims equally, naturally the attention per capita of muslim is more than hindu. So, right wing people started calling seculars "sickulars". The neutral who rarely gave importance to religion became sceptical of seculars.  These things, started dividing the people. Now, you want indian muslims to have a leadership, just like RSS claims leadership of all the Hindus.

However luckily, we indians, mostly kept religion at home. Majority of us, dont identify us with religion. If that is the case, all hindus must be voting BJP and the party would never lose an election. The same thing applies to muslims too. Not everyone of them is inferior to live in a hindu dominated nation, not every one of them is sporting a beard without mustache to let people identify his religion, not every muslim girl wears a burqa or a hijab.

Mr. Bhagat, not only muslim youth of india, the whole youth of india needs jobs. Dont apply color of religion to every social issue. And stop, viewing them as aliens who needs support. The poor every religion in india needs support, the patient of every religion in india needs a doctor, the youth of every religion in india needs employment, the people of every religion needs protection from terrorism , and the rich of every religion must be taxed. You want indian muslim to feel fear, excluded from the society and lonely.

I give you credit for making youth take up of the hobby of reading books, but your views suck in politics.

Regards,
Citizen of India .

Day to Day Economics by Satish Deodhar

The book is part of IIM Ahmedabad business book series.

It can be introduced into curriculum for introduction to economics. The writing style is good, and most of the book is written for layman. Anecdotes made the subject little more interesting. It's hard to find a book on economics which is interesting. However, the author achieved that feat.

But, in the last chapter , he concluded the book like any other non-economist, I.e comparing Indian situation with other countries and criticizing Indian system. He could have used those pages to write something useful.

Real and Popular History

The role of history is always dubious. There is this  historians-archeologists history and there is a popular history which common people would love to believe. Both have different purpose in society.

For me the real history or historians -history is to learn lessons from the mistakes of others in the past. So that we don't repeat them and advance the society. This type of history is for decision makers. The case studies on rise or fall of companies given to MBA students fall in to this category. The best history book which was written in similar way is Machiavelli's " The Prince". He read history, drew conclusions from it, wrote a book so that a future king can take advantage of it. The ordinary history text books which offer no lesson are just books with events sorted in chronological order. They offer nothing for the progress of society.

And there is a problem with history text books in our curriculum. We read them to pass the exams without understanding. When the knowledge doesn't sink in, we tend to forget it and believe whatever others say later. The best example is " India never attacked another nation in the last ten thousand years. But Indus valley civilisation started just 5 thousand years back , and India didn't have this shape before Briton established its hold on India. If you had studied the history you would understand that the history is was written with swords using blood as ink on parchment of treachery under the light of will to expand kingdom.

We were lead to believe that, others waged war on India just to loot and destroy the temples. In fact, except Mohammed of Ghori and Huns of Mongolia everybody else who invaded India, settled down in here and made it their own country. Except for Alexander and Europeans imperialism was the rare philosophy by which India was ruled.

The Facebook shared pics lead us believe that Muslims are united in ruling India i.e they see themselves as Muslims ruling a Hindu territory, but they ruled like any other king of the world. Even they waged wars against other Muslim nations. But in reality , they have cheated each other, they have used marriage alliances to expand territory , their feudal lords declared independence when the ruler at the central is dead. Muslim kings of Iran invaded mughal empire to loot the wealth. Sher shah suri, drove away Humayun, the son of Babar and father of Akbar, from Delhi and looted it. Similar stories happened before Islam in India.

The popular history will have us believe that through out the history the hatred between Hindus and Muslims prevailed. This is also wrong. Akbar and many kings of Vijayanagara empire have had ministers and army generals from other religions. When the 1857 revolt started in kanpoor, the soldiers both Muslim n Hindu, went to Bahadur shah 2 , the last Mughal king and convinced him to lead the revolt. If the perpetual hostility was true , it would not have happened. Of course the poor old man was driven out of Indian main land by British for leading the revolt after ruthlessly crushing the revolt.

Our history is full of kings who murdered their fathers and brothers to sit on the throne. It's full of wars to get the important cities and ports under their control. Popular history won't mention but. The Hindu kingdoms occupied Afghanistan. Popular history totally forgets to mention the naval power. It doesn't talk on how Hindu kingdom expanded till Indonesia.

Of course to make my point that greed beyond religion, I have been saying Muslim kingdoms and Hindu kingdoms. In fact, except for shivaji, no other king rebelled or waged war because of that ideology. Its always wealth and power which played the crucial role. There was so much hostility between the kings of India( of both religions), they thought the invasion from foreign land is the opportunity to make friendship and defeat their enemy. Alexander, Babar and Europeans received welcome because of the same reason.

Now let's come to the end of medieval history of India. Unfortunately, we believe that British came with vast navy power in the disguise of business and occupied India. Again, its a false notion. When Europeans came for spices, our kings were too friendly with them ( centuries later, still it's true, we are too friendly to a foreigner than our neighbor ) , even allowed them to build fortresses. Later, when Europeans become strong , our kings made a pact to get military help , in return they allowed them to collect taxes in  a particular area. Once Europeans got hold of power to collect taxes, they fought among themselves, sided with rival kings and started occupying the territories. And British became the winner in the end.

Slowly , British started recruiting Indians into their army and the army become so vast that Indian kings were afraid to pick a fight with them. It became obvious that , British could occupy any kingdom if they wanted, but that's not why they came, they came for wealth and business. So they have made vassal kings who will pay taxes to them. This way they don't have burden themselves with day to day administration of the people, but will get money. Most of our kings reluctantly agreed to that, but they were happy to accept that scheme, because, they get to rule their kingdom. This led to increase of taxes on people, because the vassal king had a kingdom to maintain and he has to pay money to British for allowing to keep his throne. Citizens are not happy but kings were happy to be allowed to kept their thrones and crowns.

This setup was working fine until British expanded their business ventures and become too greedy. A fellow called Dalhousie devised a plan which expanded British- India. The plan is called "doctrine of lapse ", according to which, the vassal kingdom will be annexed to the British- India in the absence of a natural heir. This caused  tussle between laxmi bai of Jhansi ( her name is not Jhansi Laxmi, her name is Laxmi , Queen of kindgom Jhansi, just like we mistake for Mohammed Ghori. He was from area called Ghori and his name is Mohammed). When she adopted a male child to continue the succession of throne, British didnt accept the adoption and were advancing to annex her kingdom and then  , she joined the revolt. People might hate me for saying this , but she didn't fight for the freedom of her kingdoms, its already a vsssal state, but she fought for her family line to sit on the throne.

Coming to modern history, there were many half truths in our text books. Usually we forget the role of Ali brothers, and our text books don't mention much of Muslim leaders except for few who worked with congress, which led us to believe that the whole Muslim community was absent in the India's struggle for independence.

Is it because of the India pakistan enmity or because of some other reason, we never know. May be we have to read pakistan text books to know the full story.

Modern history of india is most distorted of all which our political parties still use to get votes. It usually resolves around the name most of us would love to hate, I.e Gandhi. I pity MK Gandhi, more than I admire him. He is the only fellow who seems to have a better understanding of Hinduism , but was muslim supporter because of his liberal views. He was the one who fought against British policy of " divide and rule " and hated by lower castes of Hinduism for that. He  interlinked independence movement with social movement. Movements like forceful entry for untouchables were brain children of him. Nobody seems to remember that. When British government wants to setup a separate electorate for dalits , just like it already did with muslims, he started a fast unto death to stop it. A nation must have its people united with religious or caste discrimination. If govt decides to divide them in the name of religion,  elections, the nation can't be united for ever. But fans of Ambedkar usually miss that point and claim that Gandhi worked against them. Discrimination could be ended by uniting people not by dividing them.

There is a false rumour that, MK Gandhi, adopted Indira Gandhi. Indira married Firoze shah Gandhi, no relation with MK Gandhi.

Till congress leaders come to us say that, if they come to power they would bring " Indiramma rajyam ", where the famous part of indiramma rajyam is national emergency which she made to save her prime minister seat.

" who control the present, controls the past, and who controls the past controls the future" said George orwell in his book 1984. Congress party used that phenomena a lot in post Rajiv Gandhi politics. Half of the government programs are named after Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi. Their sculptures are more in number than total number of sculptures of all independence fighters. This way later generations might think that, Idira and Rajiv were massleaders and did so much good work for india. Of course, some of their works were appreciatable but many were controversial. Indira was the socialist who nationalised banks and Rajiv came to throne because of symphony of his mother's dead and lost power after five years. He became PM with the support of 401 members in Loksabha and got only 150 seats at the end of five years. Sculptures rather than votes made him popular.

Finally, Ramjanmabhumi. There is no better example than this for the mislead history. There was a temple, a muslim invader demolished it and built a mosque. Even archeology department accepts to it. But the popular notion is , thats the place lord Rama took birth. Who told people that, at the very place lord Rama was born. Political drama or Karasevaks got hold of birth certificate of Lord Rama ?

Chai, chai by Biswanath Ghosh

Never read a travelogue like this one. Not one famous place was covered , except for Khajuraho. And I liked it.

Author followed a theme, I.e to visit , railway stations and corresponding places which are important railway junctions but not famous for tourism.  The book made me understand, how few places were developed just because of railway stations.

I enjoyed reading his struggle to get a decent room, his craving for a small chat with locals over a drink to know the stories and the simplicity of his travels.

The book will be loved by anyone, who is a traveler, and there is a huge difference between a traveler and a tourist.

Where ever he went, he drank alcohol. Some times he even mentioned the liquor-menu. Title justification would be done if they rename it to  " whisky, whisky ". But the author more than justified the tag line , " Travels in places where you stop but never get off".

Over all, an interesting read.

Oka prema katha chitram

Another refreshing, low budget telugu movie, which kept the tiny sparkle of my interest to watch telugu movies at theater alive.

Its a horror-comedy-flick which is not a spoof. There is a devil, we get scared but at the same time can't stop laughing. We laughed so hard that we missed few dialogs.

I found few romantic songs unnecessary but they helped to fade away the LOL.

I am not going to discuss the story because, it's a horror movie. Anyway, I highly recommend that everybody should watch it.

My photography

Fight club by Chuck Palahniuk

I liked the movie, so started reading the book.

This book and Joker character in The Dark Knight have similar affect on me. Both propagate the idea is chaos.

An insomnia patient, develops a split personality. The newly born personality forms fight club where people come to fight with each other. Not to settle scores, but to feel good. As the club grows in to pan-America, the new personality launches " project mayhem" , which is aimed at creating chaos, to end this civilization so that mankind can start from scratch again. Our guy realizes that he has a second personality, which uses his body when he fell asleep. He wants to kill himself to save the world from his other personality but fails. And project mayhem continues.

It's been a very long time I have seen the movie. So I could spot the differences between movie and the book. According to me, it's not a must-read book, but it won't disappoint.

Storm of swords

It's the third book in the series " song of ice and fire".

The author maintained his style in killing the leading characters out of blue. Of course, that's what makes the book series interesting. We can't expect what would happen next.

The chaos which were started in the second book continued here. Everybody wants to be a king and everybody has their own plots. After reading it I started liking the stannis berathean character. He is one of the many who claims to be the king, but unlike others he gives more importance in protecting the realm against " king beyond the wall ", than get the throne. I support him in doing so, because being a king is more of a responsibility than right.

Anyway, little tired of chaos and magic, so shall finish some other book before I start the fourth.

Darkly dreaming Dexter

It's the first book I started after watching the tv show. It's also my first novel I listened instead of reading. Audio books are awesome.

The title character ( can't say hero or villain) , Dexter, is a master at convincing people that he can feel and he is normal. He works in forensic lab and has an annoying sister. I think the author thought of those two things to make readers to make connection between the novel Dexter and cartoon Dexter.

Anyway, our guy , Dexter, who considers himself as monster and refers to others as humans, has a strong urge to kill. He calls that urge " Dark passenger". His foster father who was a cop decides to use this psychological disorder for the benefit of society. So, our Dexter becomes an expert serial killer who kills other serial killers.

Things were going real smooth till a serial killer kind of sends Dexter an invitation to participate in a friendly game. While, Dexter was busy admiring the work of the bad guy and trying to figure out how to find him, the bad guys goes impatient and kidnaps Dexters foster sister.

Dexter finds him , only to realize that he was his brother and how both of them turned into monsters after horrible death of their mother. He tries to convince Dexter that he is his real family and Dexter need not act like other humans and both can kill people starting with Dexters foster sister. But Dexter refuses and saves her life. That's the end.

Writing style is good and I liked the way how the lead character thinks with out the usual nonsense people. Of course there is a huge difference the story line of book and tv show. I liked the tv show better than the book.

My photography

Being independent....

We admire a man who is independent. But independence is a nasty trait to have. I am not talking about financial independence.

Before discussing pros and cons of being independent , first we have to discuss how to be independent. The definition of independence clearly indicates that it's a trait which enables us to not to depend on others while making decisions. That is what our common understanding of the term teaches us. But the definition is incomplete at a subtle level.

Proving to others is one criteria a person wants to fulfill before he completely understands the definition of personal independence. Often independence is identified with the different things he does or follow. Why both are associated ? I think , the universal notion is , if you are no different than the neighbor ,then you are just following him. So just to prove myself as an individual with own taste , i have to differ with rest of the world.  So, i have to do things which i might not like just for the sake of being different. I should not accept a generalized thing told by someone, though its benign. And that becomes the primary influential force in making decisions. But indirectly  my decisions are based on decisions of others. I was in that trap when i was younger.

Another problem with that trait is, its a gullible one, its the glass construction around the house. The trait of independence gives us nothing but the self satisfaction that, i dont fall in the pit everybody falls, i shall fall in a different pit. And we have to pay huge price for that feeling, in terms of human relations, career, time, money etc etc. We need to protect it everytime, everywhere till we die. We have to procure the armor made up of nonchalance and weapons by melting knowledge and argumentative skills. Do they protect us from getting wounded? No. They only help us to sustain the attack.

The annoyance wont stop there. Sometimes a the thought of whats wrong in being like everybody else? Why  should not I accept things which are fine by others? irritates the guy behind ribs will start kicking inside.

I agree, being independent is difficult. But , there are some positive side affects once you extend the idea beyond decisions. If the person dont depend on opinion of others,then he has to to give lot of "Benefit of doubt" while judging.  As the person understands and digests the fact that each individual is different, he is less prone to generalize things .As he makes his  own opinions , he will have no prejudices and shall  get the trait of "Down-to-earth". Once he become practical, he would not talk loosely about others. Because, people talk in that manner to make others believe that they belong to a elite group, as he is independent and dont gravel for the acceptance of others,  the words which come out of him will be sensible enough to gain respect. Understanding that each one is different with different set of problems, might lead to the path of forgiveness. We develop grudge over mistakes of others, because, we assume that he didnt react but chose to behave like that.

As the person develops opinions based on his experience , he is less susceptible to the influence of religion or  racism which spread hatred. So the person will hate less, and shall have more peace than others.  Once these traits has gone deep down, he will be become skeptical of everything. He might ask for proofs for everything , leading to disbelief in god. It does not mean he is atheist , it only means he is skeptical about the existence of  God , which makes him an agnostic.

I am still trying to understand the side affects of individuality. If i found few more, i shall post them.

There is one personal experience i would like to share. My Uncle, who is a commoner, once told me that, a person should follow the path of others, because if there are any hurdles in that path, some one or other would think of the solution, so that we shall have solutions ready made. And thats why they are commoners. People dont remember them, worst, they have done nothing to feel proud of themselves.They cant be examples and they dont make a change in the world. They dont inspire.  If they look back in life, there is nothing but boredom , their trials for acceptance of others, and depression when someone didnt recognize them. And for us, there will be lot of memories, might be failures, but still worth remembering . Whenever you find a person like that, just read the this poem by Robert Frost.

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

My photography

Clash of the kings

Second book in  "Song of ice and fire" by R.R. Martin. I found the first book interesting, and this one gripping. The war was initiated in the first and battles started in the second.

Personally I liked this book because, unlike other war stories, it didn't confine itself to strategies of war or how many got slyed etc etc. Author talked on how lords hated wars and how they tried to strike the peace. And how equations of society change in the time of war.

My favorite catcher , Tyrion Lannister, has bigger role than in the previous. I am happy for that. I really liked the way author portrayed the character of boy-king, for who ruling a kingdom is more of executing his wishes than looking after people.

The book has all the elements which made me to flip through pages. Love, betrayal, morals, magic , dragons and a story line which we can't predict. What else we need in a fantasy novel?

Ever since Shastri ...

One has to wonder politics from view point of general wisdom people get. For example, resignation of an official or a minister.

Whenever a terrible incident happens we naturally assume that it's because of the person in charge and removing from his will undo the bad. Since L.B.Shastri resigned taking responsibility for a train accident, the act of offering resignation became the proof to integrity of the person.

Ok , Shastri resigned and got personal glory as a man of integration. Now, let's talk facts. Was it because of his mistake the accident happened? Is it the job of railway minister to check if rails are joined properly and all nuts n bolts are tight? Was it not his job to do an enquiry , learn the lesson , and make sure that the employees who are responsible are punished? Or initiate a mechanism which reduces such accidents? His resignation added glory to him but added nothing to ministry of railway.

If every official resigned for the mistake of subordinates, in every office , the authority would change for every few days which leads to chaos.

" people elected me to take responsibility, not to run away from it" said Lalu Yadav when asked to follow the foot steps of Shastri after a train accident in his tenure. He might be corrupt, but he got it right. Imagine, every doctor leaving the profession after he failed to save a patient. Imagine every kid leaving education after he failed in the examination.

In the name of integrity, can we ask the army personnel to resign when we lose a war? What would have happened if every  independence fighter stopped fighting in the first battle he lose? Could India won the cricket world cup if Dhoni had resigned after losing a match?

Take the case of Nirbhaya gang rape, after which Delhi police mooted  policy to have women's wing in every police station and to have an emergency line for girls. Integrity is one factor administrators should have. But that's not all, they should be learners who refuse to do the same mistake twice and go-getters.

My photography

Economics of Ugadi.

Yesterday I.e on Ugadi, I started off to Rythubazar to get a mango which is not ripe for the preparation of ugadi chutney. There were many hawkers on the way selling mangoes and mango leaves.

I felt happy and went to them. To my surprise, I found neem flowers
for sale. I live in outskirts and there were many neem trees in our locality. Flowers of neem are available in plenty and there is no need for people to buy them. But people are buying them. So, I was wrong about availability of neem flowers in my area.Then I realized, my area is developed and trees were chopped. I knew it , but I never really cared.

Because of lack of trees, people were forced to buy things which are naturally available to them previously.  But the same so called development created business opportunity for the nearby villagers. They are getting profited. So, is development  a bad thing or a good thing?

Similar kind of scenario can be observed near industrial areas too. Govt gives land to an industry, like SEZ. Companies gather there, they recruit people. once people are coming to that area, the local business picks up. There will be tea shops, dhabas and  puncture shops. Soon the house rents go high, which helps the locals to get more money, real estate develops as people starts pouring in. Next, the area will be filled with labor huts, steel n cement shops. After completion of two or three apartments, there will be a Green Bawarchi, chicken centers, vegetable markets , mobile recharge shops, kirana and general stores, medical and pan shops.

With in two or three years, there will be schools, bars and restaurants , internet center, a nursing home, an auto stand. And all these small businesses are run mostly by locals who have nothing to do before the SEZ.

The problem is people inherently believe in zero-sum game. And we naturally tend to believe that if somebody is getting  profits means his neighbor is at loss.

My photography

Been experimenting on photography, since I got 8MP mobile. These are some  pics I liked.

Low budget films, Short movies & Plays.

Better than high budget movies, I am beginning to like artistic, offbeat low budget movies. Let me be very clear,  I am not talking about shakeela movies.

Recently I watched the "swamy ra ra", "Tere bin laden" , " The president is coming" and "pizza". I liked everyone of them. What's not to like?

Unlike in high budget movies, where , it's the stardom of the actors which pulls the audience to the theaters, where best movie is the one with highest budget and popularity of the movie is decided by number of theaters it was released.  I always believed that, unless the fans watch the many times it's impossible for any movie to stay in theaters for that long. So, to trick the fans into movies many times and producers choose the stars with high stardom. Sadly, in India, stardom can also be achieved by belonging to a particular cast or by being offspring of a star. OK, I think I am going off the topic here.

I started liking low budgets movies, plays and short movies on YouTube, because they are not shy of experimentation. Their producers are more art lovers than business men. It's the response of critics they seek, not news paper pieces thrown at the screen. They don't aim at 200 days , 150 theaters. Without so called macho nature of heroes with heavy dialogs, item songs or compulsory fights resembling Bruce Lee fights, dumb characterization of heroines and most of all , dedicated comedians, plays seems to be fine. At least I get to see different story lines.

Predictability always kills art. Short movies don't have to bother about it, nor plays. Some low budget movies like " pilla zameendar" have predictable climax, but screen play compensates that.

Anyway, once I have moved from main stream art, the whole world of art started parading before me. Before that I am not aware of " La makaan" at Hyderabad which encourages young artists, now , I am a regular visitor there. I am watching old Hollywood movies, dubbed movies on world movies, modern plays. In other words, now I am that boring guy who watches  art movies.  I am enjoying this new change.

The killing Truth !

Truth is like the fire which burns us to the core , says the telugu proverb.  For me the hard truth has two facets .

One is like a big boulder which pins us down. May be after some time, we learn to carry it and move forward, though it controls our pace. When the boulder is on the shoulder it's so hard to move and even a small elevation in the path or small hurdle might depress us. The stronger the man the faster he moves forward with it. If the person is weak, he is dead beneath it.

Another personality of hard truth is that of a spear. We knew the truth, but when it is explicitly stated by others, it becomes a spear which cuts through our body. The other person need not be the enemy even a stranger with knowledge of truth can slay us.

Unless, we have the shield of arrogance or acceptance of truth, it's tough to survive the spear attack.

Missing Orkut !

People might laugh at me, but I shall stand to my opinion. I actually miss Orkut. Not that scrap count, ratings etc etc, but I am missing communities.

I made few good friends through orkut communities. I think that's best way to make friends. Normally, we meet people , after a long chat we might find out their likes and dislikes. If we share common interests with them, then we get closr. Its time consuming.

In Orkut, we join  a community, so we meet people whose interests concur with us, so the probability finding the people with whom we can hang out is much more. And the discussions which happen in threads are so informative.  And the communities a person joins gives us an idea of his personality.

Seriously, I miss Orkut communities. I hope people ditch Facebook and participate more on
Communities of Google plus.